Chapters 101–125 Summary
Chapter 101
The narrative moves to March of 1865. Bento marries Capitu. It is raining, but when they start their honeymoon in Tijuca, the rain stops, and the stars come out.
Chapter 102
During the week of their honeymoon, Capitu is impatient to return home, saying that she wants to see her father. Bento thinks that she wants to display her new status as a married woman before the world.
Chapter 103
José Dias visits Bento and Capitu in Tijuca. He is now fully in favor of their marriage, and Bento says that he is prepared to forget his early opposition to their relationship.
Chapter 104
After two years of marriage, everything is going well for Bento, who is making his way as a lawyer. He remains close friends with Escobar, who helps him in his career. His only regret is that he has no children.
Chapter 105
Bento’s married life with Capitu is relatively placid. Capitu enjoys dancing and going to balls, but Bento does not like her to go about in public with her arms uncovered. Escobar agrees with him about this.
Chapter 106
Bento is impressed with his wife’s thrift and tells a story of the time when Capitu managed to save ten pounds sterling in a few months from the money he gave her to run the household.
Chapter 107
Bento’s jealousy is aroused by Capitu’s inattention to his conversation. He wonders what she is thinking at such times.
Chapter 108
Bento and Capitu finally have a son. Bento is overjoyed and is always fantasizing about the boy’s distinguished future. He is christened Ezequiel, which is Escobar’s name. Bento wants Escobar to be the boy’s godfather, but that honor is claimed by his uncle Cosme.
Chapter 109
Ezequiel is Bento and Capitu’s only son. This means that they are very anxious over teething, fevers, and the smallest problems of his childhood.
Chapter 110
Ezequiel has his mother’s curiosity and outgoing nature, and Bento is able to imagine him successfully pursuing various careers. Once he sees that the cat has caught a mouse and becomes annoyed when Bento claps his hands to scare the cat away. Ezequiel wanted to see the mouse eaten.
Chapter 111
Bento recounts a story from the time when Ezequiel was born. He has been kept awake at night by dogs and makes poisoned meatballs to kill them. However, when one of the dogs comes up to him, wagging its tail, he cannot bring himself to give the animal poison after such a display of trust.
Chapter 112
The only fault Bento finds in his son is that Ezequiel likes to imitate other people. He and Capitu agree that this should be corrected, but there is plenty of time to do so.
Chapter 113
Bento has always been jealous in his relations with Capitu and remains so after Ezequiel’s birth. Bento scarcely leaves her side.
Chapter 114
Bento says that one does not know whether one will be able to keep one’s oaths or not. He gives the example of a song sung by a sweet seller, to which he was sentimentally attached. He vowed never to forget it but did so anyway.
Chapter 115
Bento tells Capitu abouts various doubts concerning his business, his mother, and his son. She has a marvelous way of dispelling them.
Chapter 116
Bento asks José Dias if he thinks Dona Gloria has become colder in her manner towards Capitu. Dias replies that he hears nothing but praise of Capitu from her. José Dias encourages Ezequiel to imitate him, but Capitu explains that she and Bento are...
(This entire section contains 931 words.)
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trying to prevent him from imitating anyone.
Chapter 117
Escobar buys a house in Flamengo, near Bento’s house in Gloria. The two of them are so close that it is difficult to say which house is whose: “I lived in his house, he in mine.”
Chapter 118
Escobar mentions a project he has in mind to Bento, saying he will discuss it with him the following day. Sancha reveals that what he has in mind is for Bento and Capitu to take a trip to Europe. As he speaks to her, Bento is conscious of an attraction to Sancha which he has never felt before and which troubles him. When they part, he feels that she is squeezing his hand harder and for longer than usual.
Chapter 119
Bento, as narrator, notes that his lady readers will want to shut the book after the revelation in the preceding chapter but reassures them that he is changing course.
Chapter 120
The next day, Bento applies himself to some documents in a lawsuit and forgets about Sancha.
Chapter 121
As he is working, Bento is interrupted by a slave from Escobar’s house, who tells him that Escobar has died while swimming in the sea.
Chapter 122
Bento arranges a funeral for Escobar and composes a speech. He is concerned that if he does not write down his feelings, he will be overcome by emotion and unable to say anything.
Chapter 123
At the funeral, Capitu’s eyes fill with tears as she looks at the dead body of Escobar. Her look seems to Bento to suggest that she, not Sancha, is the widow.
Chapter 124
When the time comes for Bento to make the speech, he is filled with turmoil and reads it haltingly and incompletely.
Chapter 125
Bento compares his situation with that of Priam, who kissed the hand of the man who killed his son. He has praised the virtues of a man upon whom his wife has looked with love and grief, with eyes wide open, as though she wanted to swallow him.
